A Stamford, Connecticut, art gallery owner was arrested and charged with a criminal misdemeanor and a felony Friday morning after dropping an 800-pound steel sculpture of a bent, burnt heroin spoon in front of Purdue Pharma, a top manufacturer of opioids, and then refusing to remove it.

Fernando Luis Alvarez, who is mounting an exhibit on the opioid epidemic, was charged with obstruction of free passage for his act of “guerrilla art”...

Alvarez said the sculpture and its placement are a statement intended to create a groundswell of outrage against Purdue and the billionaire Sackler family, who are majority owners of the company, which developed OxyContin.